Jul 17, 20237 min read

LISTEN TO YOUR BODY: WHAT, WHEN, HOW TO EAT FOOD

In our body, most of the functions are involuntary which happens by itself like heartbeat, digestion, metabolism, etc, and some are voluntary like the movement of our limbs, talking, eating, cognitive functions, and many more. The interesting thing is although most of the functions in our body are involuntary, our voluntary functions determine how vital functions in our body should perform, whether they should go with ease or with difficulties.

Eating food is one of the most important voluntary functions which determine bodies normal growth, maintenance, and all cellular and enzymatic functions. It is the source for where we get energy from. So, it is very important to have good quality and proper quantity of food.

WHAT TO EAT AND WHAT NOT, CONFUSION??

In this age due to technological advancement where we have the ability to get any information, but are confused about whether we can trust it For example, if a person wants to find out whether eating rice is good or bad, he will get information about how rice consumption is directly related to diabetes and weight gain, and on the contrary, he will also find information that how brown rice or red rice has many nutrients which help in the control of diabetes. Some say eating meat is good because of proteins and other nutrients and others say it is bad for heart health and may get cancer. You will find eating eggs daily is good and also find getting cholesterol problems by consuming eggs. So, in these dilemmas of information what you should choose for your health?? Whom you should ask for??

LISTEN TO YOUR OWN BODY

You may be thinking of listening to your own body!! Does our body even talk to us?? This does not make any sense right? If we take our body as a whole our body sends signals to us in the form of symptoms (like pain, dizziness, feeling uncomfortable, not feeling of eating or sometimes very happy feeling, etc) in order to correct our lifestyle. This is how the body communicates with us through symptoms and feelings. Most of these appear before the onset of any disease, but usually, we ignore them or try to suppress these feelings.

HOW TO UNDERSTAND THESE SIGNALS??

For understanding this let us take hunger as an example. We all know our hunger will not be same all the day, sometimes we will get more hungry, and sometimes no hunger at all. This is the simplest signal anyone can understand, whenever there is a low energy level in our body in order to balance it, the body sends signals to have food. Whenever there is excess energy body removes hunger so that extra food should not be consumed.

Other than this if indigestion happens due to weak organs or due to poor food quality, hunger will not come for some time or even for days. This is the body telling you that you should not take heavy solid food because the body is busy eliminating undigested food through an increased frequency of passing stools or through loose stools. If you follow this signal your intestinal health will be well maintained. But if you ignore this by suppressing elimination and having heavy food it is a double burden for your intestine.

During fever, or common cold the first thing you will notice is your taste and hunger will be gone for 2 to 3 days. If you follow this sign properly, the fever will go after 2 to 3 days without any complications. This is a clear message to you that you should not eat during this period while your body is clearing pathogens. But what we do is the exact opposite, we eat with extra masala and spice to activate taste buds. Now for immediate relief, you have not listened to your body, because of this fever is followed by sore throat, cough, or sometimes respiratory infections which then require a heavy dosage of medications.

Our body is so capable that if you eat in the absence of hunger also, it will convert this extra energy into storage forms like glycogen and fat, but it also has its own limitation. If this continues for a long period of time then this leads to various complications in our system.

So, it is essential to have food when you are hungry but more than that important is you should not eat anything when you don’t have hunger.

WRONG UNDERSTANDING OF OUR BODY SIGNALS

You may ask what about obese and diabetic people, they always feel hungry in short intervals and the absence of hunger is very rare for them. Yes, this is because of long-term suppression and not following body signals correctly, due to this their body signal will get altered or we can call it as wrong signaling. Another aspect is we have to know the difference between hunger and appetite. Hunger is for the necessity of our body and appetite is just the experience of our tongue.

Let us understand this by example, morning you had little breakfast and you went to your work and kept yourself busy. At noon due to a decrease in energy level, you will get hungry. This is your body's necessity to have food. After having very good food, you are roaming there and you will find your favorite sweet or ice cream in a shop and you started feeling to have that, now this is Appetite. Although your stomach is full and there is a sufficient amount of energy in you, your body feels like eating. This feeling is very dangerous, and most of people eat heavy food for this appetite regularly thinking this is hunger, and eventually their hunger is replaced by appetite. This is how bodies signal gets altered. This is just one example of one of many signals. Now imagine how many signals have been altered in our body and we are following it blindly.

HOW BODIES SIGNAL BROUGHT TO NORMAL?

WHAT TO EAT??

If you are conscious of your body then you will get to know which food is acceptable for your body and which food is not. Most of the time we have very tasty food but after some time we will feel discomfort, lethargy, blotting sensation, or sometimes we may not get the proper excretion of food we had. This indicates that your body is struggling to digest the food you just ingested, and it is not suitable for your body.

Observe your body when you have only fruits in the morning or some salads with freshly cooked home meals, after that, you will feel lightness in your stomach, and energy, and your excretion will be proper and a sense of comfort and satisfaction. When you feel these, understand that your body loved the food you just ingested and digested it properly and is suitable for your body. This is how you can find out what is suitable food for you by listening to your body.

Most food we love are very tasty but not all are good for your body. So, always go by bodies reaction after having food not by the taste.

Sometimes we will feel good after having a cup of coffee or tea in a stressful situation. Some people will not get the feeling of passing stools unless they have coffee or tea. This is the wrong body signal due to the long-term practice of a bad lifestyle. It is always better to consult a physician who is an expert in this field.

According to naturopathy local, seasonally available foods which are processed minimum so that it is suitable for consumption are best for a person living in that area. All over the world, there are different kinds of climate, land, and environment. For a particular region, the body needs certain types and amounts of nutrients that are given by plants grown in that region and in that particular season.

Let us understand this by taking refined white rice. For your meals you have only white rice with sambar or curd, you need 2 or sometimes 3 servings of rice to fill your stomach. After having that much still your body will not get satisfaction, still, it wants some sweetness at the end, or after some time again you will feel hungry. By interpreting body signals you can understand in your meals there is a lack of nutrients. Your body needs enough micronutrients along with macronutrients to function properly. By eating refined foods, you have provided macronutrients without micronutrients, that’s why the body demands more food.

If you take a building as an example, majorly it requires bricks but it required iron rods, cement, and soil for building it. Imagine you have built a building only with bricks without cement or iron rods, will that building sustain?? NO.

In the same way, if you eat highly refined food without other nutrients your health will not sustain.

Just have unrefined rice with lots of vegetables and you will feel satisfied with half the portion of your regular meals. This is the signal your body gives you that it had proper food.

WHEN TO EAT??

The body needs food when its activity is more. If we look into this our bodies' activity starts at sunrise and peaks at noon and evening and slows down after sunset, and very minimum during the night. According to this, we should eat whenever we have hunger. Usually, hunger (in a healthy individual) comes in the morning, noon, and afternoon depending on the energy expenditure and his mindset and thoughts. Imagine you had a heavy meal at late night in the absence of hunger, the next day morning you will not feel fresh and energetic. This is the message your body is giving you that energy in food has not reached every cell properly.

Some people will feel the hunger in late at night, again this is because of wrong lifestyle practices bodies signals got altered.

HOW TO EAT??

The food we eat is responsible for our body’s maintenance, growth, and many other functions. So, we should be aware of what we are eating and how much we are eating. Always food should be chewed properly and swallowed slowly in a comfortable sitting position. Digestion starts from vision and smell of food which stimulates the secretion of digestive juices. It is better to eat with our hands because we will perceive the sensation of temperature, texture, and consistency of food before it enters into our mouth.

The greater the attention we give to eating the better digestion takes place and we can perceive body signals clearly.

By following proper signals from our body, we can lead a proper healthy life which is responsible for our body's health. When we understand our body properly, it will be easy for us to lead a happy and healthy life, and even though there are many obstacles we can manage them by overcoming them through guidance from our own body’s signals.

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